Some items are notorious for needing to be broken in after you buy them (looking at you, Dr. Martens). But there are many things—including Wirecutter-tested items—that you wouldn’t necessarily expect to benefit from a break-in period. However, our staff experts who have tested and vetted these items have found they get better with time.
Our staff has also found that not all items actually need a break in period, despite common advice. Senior staff writers Brent Butterworth and Lauren Dragan—who test speakers and headphones, respectively—note that those devices need only a few minutes of burn-in time for the parts to settle and loosen up before you get quality audio.
After consulting our guides and staff experts, we’ve compiled guidance on how to break in over a dozen surprising Wirecutter picks that you should take for a spin (or two) before putting them to serious use.
Most electric razor manufacturers say you should expect a break-in period when using a new razor. But the break-in period isn’t for the razor—it’s for your face. If you’re switching from a manual to an electric, or even from one electric style to another, you generally need to give your skin two weeks to adjust to the new tool, according to Wirecutter’s Dan Koeppel and staff writer James Austin in our guide to the best electric razors. Different sources gave them different answers as to why this break-in period is necessary, including new-user error and the need to train your skin to the new sensations of electric razors. But the takeaway remains the same: You should give your skin a few weeks to adjust to your new razor. Accept that your first electric shaves will be patchy and probably painful. And refrain from touching up your shave with a manual razor because that defeats the purpose of the break-in period.
If your mattress is made of foam, you’ll probably need to sleep on it for a few weeks before it softens. According to senior editor Courtney Schley, this is especially true if your direct-to-consumer mattress was once stored at colder temperatures. Even innerspring mattresses need to be broken in because they’re often made with some amount of foam, Courtney says.
As Larry David once said (video), “Towels are better when they’re washed over and over again … they dry you a lot better.” Manufacturers usually treat towels of all varieties with an industrial coating finish called sizing. The finish protects the fabric during warehouse storage and shipping, and it makes the fabric feel fluffy and soft to the touch in the store. But these finishes also make towels less absorbent, which is why it’s important to wash all new towels before first using them. During bath towel testing, senior staff writer Jackie Reeve found that traces of these added softeners and finishes wear off by the fifth wash. Senior staff writer Lesley Stockton washed dish towels 10 times prior to testing to rinse away any leftover sizing.
Percale cotton sheets
Like towels, most sheets are finished in order to make them softer and smoother before they hit store shelves. Jackie found that finishing treatments can usually be washed out over a handful of laundry cycles. In her research, she found that sheets with labels such as “wrinkle free,” “no iron” or “durable press” often mean the fabric has been treated with “some kind of formaldehyde or urea-based resin” and can take even longer to wash out. Supervising editor Daniela Gorny recommends sateen sheets if you don’t like the longer break-in period of the percale sheets.
New appliances with exposed heating elements often require a burn-in before they’re used for the first time. “Those exposed elements are coated with finishes that help prevent corrosion in transport and warehouse settings,” Senior editor Marguerite Preston explains. “The finishes need to be burned off before you can use the appliance, mainly because they let off pungent, plasticky chemical fumes when they burn—and you don’t want those on your food,” she says. Instructions for burning in your new appliance will likely be included in the manual, so be sure to read through all the included paperwork before firing it up. Depending on the device, you may smell fumes in the first round or two of burning in your appliance, so make sure your space is well ventilated before you get started.
To ensure that visitors get a comfortable night’s sleep, stretch out your new inflatable mattress a few days before they arrive. Two days before your house guests come knocking, we recommend that you fully inflate the air bed. Continue to top it up periodically for the next 48 hours. Don’t sleep or put any weight on the bed during this time. Just let it sit, fully expanded and untouched. This helps the vinyl material of the mattress adjust so that it holds onto its fill throughout the night rather than slowly deflate inch by inch as the night wears on.
When used and cared for properly, cast-iron pans develop a slick coating of polymerized fat that creates a nonstick surface called seasoning. Most cast-iron pans—including both picks in our guide—arrive seasoned and thus can be used right away. Antique and artisan skillets, on the other hand, aren’t preseasoned. They need to be broken in before they can sear a steak to perfection or release a delicate egg smoothly. Seasoning a pan takes a few hours, but it’s fairly easy to do. And senior staff writer Michael Sullivan includes step-by-step instructions in his guide to cleaning and caring for cast-iron cookware.
Even the best hiking boots—such as the Salomon Quest 4 Gore-Tex Hiking Boots (men’s and women’s), our top pick—need to be taken for a spin (or several) before they’re comfortable enough to tackle tough trails. Expect to walk anywhere from 5 to 10 miles before your boots start to soften, and invest in a pair of thick hiking socks in the meantime to ward off blisters.
Unlike the mass-manufactured jeans you’d find on the shelves at a department store, raw denim is unwashed and untreated, which makes it stiffer and more prone to bleeding an indigo hue onto whatever it touches. Over time, though, the denim will conform to your body, creating a fit unique to you. In his reporting, Wirecutter’s Justin Krajeski found that caring for raw jeans boils down to an aesthetic choice. If you’re aiming for a faded, worn-in look, you’ll want to wear them at least 30 times before hand-washing them with mild detergent for the first time.
Wallets and other leather goods
You’re probably familiar with the fact that leather goods, like boots and jackets, need a break-in period, and leather wallets are no exception. Deals staff writer Mike Cohen notes that at first leather goods might be “tight and pinchy, but then they get soft and personal” with use. Our favorite leather wallets should all be good to use right out of the box with minimal breaking in, but if you enjoy taking the time to break in your wallet, we have options for you too.
Birkenstocks
Leather Birkenstocks need to be broken in (and cared for) properly for them to become the comfortable sandals you expect them to be. But even Birkenstock’s ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) styles need to be broken in too, according to style staff writer Zoe Vanderweide. Our recommended style, the Arizona EVAs, are waterproof, lightweight, and machine washable, and they get more comfortable with each wear, just like the leather sandals.
Leatherman tools
Our favorite multi-tool, the Leatherman Skeletool CX, will likely require breaking in, according to senior staff writer Tim Heffernan. He found Leatherman tools are really stiff when new, making it harder to open the pliers and pull out the multiple tool options. “But if you use them a lot, they loosen up—they can get to the point that you can flip the pliers open with a flick of your wrist, kinda like a butterfly knife, and that is very handy if you only have one hand free,” says Tim.
This article was edited by Alex Aciman and Catherine Kast.
